Happy Friday!  Can you believe that the weekend is finally here!?  Give yourself a pat on the back…you deserve it

Tomorrow is a BIG day for me: moving day!  AHH!!!!  I’m freaking out right now!!  My little apartment is only about halfway packed right now.  It’s to the point where I don’t really know (or care) what to do with anything else and I’m just throwing it all into boxes.  Friends and family are coming to help us move tomorrow at 9 am.  I must be ready by then.  *continues to freak out*

This Cranberry Chicken has been a saving meal to me for a few nights the past couple of weeks.  (Too bad my crockpot is packed away not and I may just have to settle for takeout tonight).  It’s so easy to throw together in less than five minutes.  Even better though, it tastes SO good!!  It’s definitely a new favorite at our house.

Today I have guest posted over at my friend Nancy’s blog, The Bitter Side of Sweet.  Her blog is awesome, and I highly recommend that you all check it out!!

FIND THE RECIPE HERE

One week ago today I was sitting on my computer, much like I am right now.  I was just working on some blog stuff, but it was starting to get later in the evening when I tend to get a little lazy in my work and start to browse Facebook and read blogs more than do my actual work.

Well, I started to get really lazy, and began doing some window shopping.  Just for a second, right?  Everyone does it…right?!  This time I turned to my local classified ads and took a look around.  I chose to look at some apartments.  Of course, just for fun.  You know, to see what they had for sale around the area.  Kind of like when you go to an open house for a new home just to see what it’s like and have absolutely no intentions of buying whatsoever, but on a much smaller scale since I’m still a poor college student.

Seconds turned into minutes and minutes turned into a couple hours.  Those hours turned into a few evenings of apartment tours.  A few apartment tours turned into one signed apartment contract.

We’re moving on SATURDAY.  That’s in FOUR days folks.

It turns out that apartments outside of town are quite a bit cheaper, and we also like the environment there as well.  That gives us the opportunity to upgrade to a bigger places with more amenities (hello dishwasher!)

If you told me about this eight days ago I would have thought you were INSANE.

Now my apartment in completely undecorated, about 1/3 packed up, and will no longer be my home come this Sunday.

This red velvet kiss trifle was one of the last things that I was able to bake before my little place turned into a small house of chaos.  And now we’re basically living off of this and canned soup until we get our new kitchen back together.  I’ll tell you what: this little trifle has sure made us happy more than once after a couple rounds of packing so far!

I absolutely guarantee you that if you make this for your special Valentine’s day treat for you and your special someone (or even just your friends!) I promise it will be a hit.  With three kinds of chocolate (red velvet, white chocolate, and of course: Hershey’s Kisses), cool whip, and strawberries…seriously!  What’s not to love!?

Valentine’s Red Velvet Kiss Trifle
Ingredients:
1 box red velvet cake mix, baked according to package directions
2 boxes (3.56 oz each) White Chocolate pudding mix
4 cups milk (for pudding)
8 oz. cool whip
1 lb. strawberries, sliced
1 bag (11 oz.) Hershey’s Kisses, unwrapped

Directions:
1. Bake cake according to package directions and allow to cool completely.  Cut cake into 1-in. cubes.
2. Mix pudding according to package directions, and stir in 8 oz. cool whip.
3. In a food processor, grind the Hershey’s kisses into small chunks.
4. In a trifle bowl, layer trifle from bottom to top as follows: 1/2 cake cubes, 1/2 pudding/cool whip, strawberries, Hershey’s Kisses, 1/2 cake cubes, 1/2 pudding/cool whip.  Garnish top with extra cake crumbs and/or chocolate shavings if desired.
5. Chill.  Serve and enjoy!

I haven’t done a “Favorite Pinterest Finds of the Week” post for a while, but I loved them too much to stop!  So here it goes – another collection of my favorite things that I have found while browsing Pinterest this past week

Steel Cut Oatmeal with Blackberries, Granola and Greek Yogurt by The Cottage Market
This looks so good, and my mouth waters every time I look at it.  I think I could have this for breakfast everyday for the rest of my life!

“Lovely” Button Heart on Canvas by Crafts by Courtney
If my husband wasn’t so disgusted by buttons (true story…) I would definitely make this!  I LOVE the 4th of July theme, and I would also make one for Valentine’s Day.

Conversation Heart Cheesecake by Recipe Sweet
Aren’t these just so cute!?  I just need to go out and buy those molds now so that I can whip these up!

Skinny Slow Cooker Kale and Turkey Meatball Soup by Foodie Crush
I love soups that are just warm, hearty, and tasty, but not too heavy.  This soup would be perfect!

Cherry Cream Cheese Danish Muffins by Frugal Foodie Mama
Whenever I’m at the grocery store, I have a huge weakness whenever I see anything like this (especially if it’s on clearance).  They’re so good!  I should just start making my own at home – don’t these just look divine?!  You can bet they’re a million times better than the ones at the store.

Boston Cream Donuts by Shugary Sweets
Holy smokes!  I want one of these so bad right now.  I know my hubby would inhale them too!

Chicken Parmesan Roll Ups by Will Cook for Smiles
Mmm… I’m placing this on my menu for next week!

Skinny Funfetti Cake Batter Dip by Something Swanky
I love anything with sprinkles.  Sprinkles are like the glitter of food.  Not to mention it tastes like cake batter…

Looks like I better start saving my toilet paper rolls…

These could satisfy my sweet tooth any day!

I LOVE marshmallows.  Marshmallows have got to be my #1 favorite treat.

In all honesty, I think the truth is that I just love sugar.  And marshmallows are basically just another form of sugar  Send me to sugar heaven.

Contrary to all of this, I never open a bag of marshmallows and just munch.  You know the powder stuff that’s on the outside of marshmallows to prevent them from sticking together?  Yuck.  I hate that stuff.  It feels funny on my teeth and takes away from the pure marshmallow goodness that I truly desire.  I like marshmallows in any other form.

Especially marshmallow cream.

Maybe you’re “normal” and don’t have a crazy love for something (I think most people do, so therefore if you don’t…maybe you’re not “normal”?) that you could eat straight out of the jar.  For example, I used to have a roommate who would eat a spoonful of peanut butter from the jar at least once per day.  Some love nutella, biscoff cookie spread, cookie dough etc.  Well.  I love marshmallow cream!   And yes, I do know that there is absolutely ZERO nutritional value in a spoonful of the cream, so I don’t actually remember the last time that I ate it plain, but I would choose it over any of the above options ANYday.

If you have followed me for a while, you have probably recognized my marshmallow trend already.  I have used marshmallows in many recipes.  Like my Easy Fruit Dip, S’mores Rice Krispies Treats, Special K Treats, Marshmallow Fudge, Cookies n’ Cream Bars, and Milky Way Caramel Apple Nachos.  I just can’t get enough!

I’ve been dreaming of making a cake smothered in marshmallow cream for a while.  It sounded like heaven.  Then, since the weather has been so cold lately, with all the hot cocoa I have been drinking, I knew the idea of a warm chocolate cake with marshmallow on top was the perfect treat for a cold day in January!

If you’re looking for a warm cozy treat, this is the one for you!

Hot Cocoa Cake with Marshmallow Glaze
Recipe adapted from
Ingredients:
For cake:
1 pkg. Chocolate cake mix
1 pkg. (3.4 oz) Instant chocolate pudding mix (small box)
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup milk
4 eggs
1 cup sour cream or plain yogurt
10 large marshmallows cut in half

For glaze:
1 jar (7 oz.) marshmallow cream
2 Tbs. milk
2 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp. vanilla

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Mix together cake mix, pudding, oil, milk, eggs, and sour cream (or yogurt) on medium speed until well blended.
3. Spray inside of a bundt pan with cooking spray and pour in half of the batter.  Evenly distribute marshmallows, avoiding the edges of the pan, and top with remaining batter.
4. Bake at 350 for 40-50 min or until toothpick inserted near a center section comes out clean.
5. Meanwhile, while cake is baking, prepare glaze by mixing together all the glaze ingredients until smooth.
5. Allow cake to cool in pan for about 2 min, then flip directly onto serving platter.
6. Pour glaze over hot cake.  (I didn’t use all the glaze – put on as much as you would like!  You can also top individual slices with additional glaze if desired.)  Serve warm with a cup of hot cocoa and enjoy!

Wow.  What a year it has been!!  If you had told me one year ago that I would be blogging now, I would have thought that you were totally crazy.

This time last year I was an avid blog stalker (and I still am…), but I never thought that I would be doing it myself!  Then early 2013 my whole world changed.  I realized that I wasn’t doing what I wanted to do, but rather what other people wanted me to do.

If I had one piece of advice that I could give to anybody it would be this: Follow your dreams.  Do what makes you happy.

Starting this blog back in May was just my first step in the process of changing my life into something that I wanted it to become.  And this blog just a baby right now, I absolutely cannot wait to see what this new year brings.

I also can’t wait to see what this year brings for myself.  This blog isn’t the only thing that I have done to change my life for the better…I have even more plans in store.  I’m keeping them secret for right now (and no, I’m not pregnant), but if you follow along, I guarantee that you’ll find out sooner than later.  Bring on the New Year!!

I have gathered up the Top 10 reader’s favorites from this past year.  And, since I started blogging this year, they are also my Top 10 posts of all time.  If you haven’t seen them yet, check them out.  I love them all!  Just putting this post together made my mouth water!!  The countdown goes backwords, so read to the end to get to #1!

10. Pumpkin Nutella Swirl Bread

9. Curry Broccoli Chicken Casserole

8. Stove-Top Meatloaf

7. DIY Glittered Seasonal Wall Hangings (Tutorial)

6. Creamy Bow-Tie Pasta Bake

5. Homemade Spaghettios

4. Muddy Buddy Popcorn

3. Stuffed Green Peppers

2. Homestyle Chicken Noodle Soup

1. Easy Fruit Dip

I am SO excited for Christmas!!  Maybe not the actual Christmas day, because (surprisingly) I don’t have many plans that day.  My mom and my brother both work on Christmas day, so we won’t be doing anything as a family until the evening.  That includes opening presents!  Oh well.

I’m mostly just so excited for this whole upcoming week of Christmas celebrations.  Tomorrow I get to go to my first Blogger’s Party.  I’m STOKED!  Then, on Thursday I’m taking the day of to bake lots of different treats to give away to the neighbors.  I can’t wait for that day!  In my “Utopia”, I would be able to bake all day long, test my creations without counting the calories, and have all of the dishes magically done for me.  Well, I at least get to do the first part on Thursday, right!?

That’s only part of the baking I’m planning on doing.  I have family get-togethers on both Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday.  You can guarantee that I’ll be taking my traditional cake balls and a few other treats to those gatherings  I just can’t wait!!  Bring on this upcoming week!!

One of the very first things that I wanted to bake this month were these cookies.  They’re a mouth-watering sandwich cookie filled with chocolate!

I finally own a cookie jar (wohoo!) and I wanted to be able to put some cookies in it, so I made these.

They never made it to the cookie jar.

They’re THAT good.

My husband gobbled them up like I have never seen him gobble up something sweet before!  At this point, it was a couple weeks ago that I made these, and he is STILL asking me to make them again.  Perhaps I will add them to the list of goodies to make on Thursday.

Do you have any fun plans for the holidays?  Do you have any fun traditions?  I’ve only been married a year and a half, and I’m still trying to establish lots of fun traditions for my family – I would love to hear about yours!

Happy Holidays!

Florentine Cookies
Ingredients:
2/3 cup butter, melted
2 cups quick oats
1 cup sugar
2/3 cup flour
1/4 cup corn syrup
1/4 cup milk
1 tsp. vanilla
1/4 tsp. salt
1-3/4 cup milk chocolate chips, melted

Directions:
1. In a medium bowl, mix together all ingredients except chocolate.  Dough will be very sticky!
2. Line baking sheets with foil (do NOT skip this step!)
3. Drop dough by level teaspoon onto foil-lined baking sheets.  Flatten slightly.
4. Bake for 6 to 8 minutes or until golden brown.
5. Leave on baking sheet to cool completely.
6. Once cool, peel foil from cookies.
7. Spread thin layer of chocolate on backs of cookies and sandwich together.  Enjoy!

BEHIND THE SCENES AT A PINCH OF GLITTER

**Disclaimer: I received product from Meyer Imports in order to write this post.  This post is written by me.  All opinions are 100% mine.**

I had some guests over to my home today – the first ones that have come over since I have set up my Christmas decorations.  I have to say that I’m pretty proud of how my decorations turned out this year.

Last year my decor consisted mostly of hand-me-down items from my parents of things they were willing to give me (aka, the stuff they didn’t want anymore…).  It was nice, but was definitely not my style at all.  So the day after Christmas I went out and I got lots of decorations that I was happy with (at a great price!) and stored them for 11 months until I was ready to pull them out this year.

It wasn’t until I had guests over that I realized that easily 95% of my decor has glitter on it.  I mean, it’s not like I was unaware of the fact that everything had glitter (that’s what makes it me!) but I was unaware of how many things didn’t have any glitter on them.  Like, two.

Do you remember back when I posted my Glittered Pumpkins n’ Leaves and I said that plain pumpkins were just “boring”?

Well, I feel the exact same way about pinecones!  I love walking past the crates of the cinnamon pinecones at the store around Christmas time – and I love having that smell in my home even more!  But I wasn’t so sure about laying a pile of plain brown pinecones among the rest of my decor that…isn’t so plain

My answer?  GLITTER of course!!

I bought two bags of pinecones, and glittered one – I wanted a nice mix of glittered/plain pinecones with just enough glitter to sparkle the basket, but not to overwhelm. It took me less than 15 minutes to glitter a bag of cones.  So. Simple!

I also wanted to keep the glitter a natural color.  I’ve seen pinecones before that have been glittered lots of bright colors, but I feel as if that takes away a bit too much from their natural beauty.  I just wanted to emphasize the beauty the pinecones already had.

These pinecones add just the right touch to my Christmas decor – a little natural beauty, sparkle, and yummy cinnamon smell.

The glitter for this project was provided by Meyer Imports.  Like I mentioned in my previous post, Meyer Imports has everything you could ever need (want? ) when it comes to glitter.  At my local craft stores, I wasn’t able to find any dark brown glitter like this project required, but when I asked Meyer Imports, they knew just what I needed and of course had the correct color available.

All of the glitter from Meyer Imports is made of glass and is imported from Germany.  That’s right.  German glass glitter.  It is super fancy and is the best quality for any of your crafting needs.  It sparkles and shines like no other glitter because it is made of glass.  And, as I have found out over time, it’s a lot easier to clean up too! (huge bonus in my book)

Please check out Meyer Imports and tell them hello from me!

Glittered Cinnamon Pinecones
Materials:
Cinnamon Pinecones (can be purchased at any craft store (or Wal-Mart) during the holidays)
Dark Brown German Glass Glitter (I used 90 grit)
Mod Podge
1″ foam brush

Directions:
1. Brush pinecone edges with a layer of Mod Podge (I found it easiest to start at the base of the cone and brush up).
2. Either sprinkle glitter on your pinecone, or roll your pinecone in glitter
3. Allow to dry, then place in a basket to display.